A few days ago there was a reunion of sorts. a number of the crew of the "glory days" of Charisma the S&S 56 belonging to Jesse Phillips turned up in Newport. I keep fond memories of our days sailing. It all seemed so easy, we all had confidence in one another . In the photo on the left taken during the Bermuda race, a hurricane crossed the course, we had
70 knots over the deck at one point. It was also the moment I decided that I could make a better safety harness.(it's me in the photo)
the photo taken from the masthead of Charisma during the trans-atlantic race to Spain. A long slow race.
From there we took off to get to Sardinia in time for the first Mediterranean championships, Bill Ficker came and skippered the boat, we won everything.
the bottom photo is of Peter Van dyke and John Browning sailing throught the straits of Gibraltar
2 comments:
Hey Stephen,
I was on BONAVENTURE V in the early '70s. Fred McConnell was the hand on Jesse's boat and think he'd been on the pre-C&C 43 ARIETO just before being the BN on CHARISMA. Fred was and remains a good friend of several of mine in Toronto.
I remember being put of the wheel of BONES hours from the finish of the Pt Huron Mac while trailing CHARISMA. We were close behind but couldn't pull her back AND recall we owed you a little time. We had some good wins with BONES but you guys CONSISTENTLY had a GREAT boat and GREAT crew.
Neat pics and nice memories.
CHEERS !
I was the original paid hand on the first S&S Charisma. I worked at PJ's during her construction. I have a few B&W images of her under construction, alongside Yankee Girl. This was 1969. PJ's trucked her to St. Pete's, just in time for the SORC that winter. She scraped a bridge on her way which damaged some deck gear (winches mostly) putting the pressure on to be ready for the start of the first race. Steve Rubincam was the original skipper. Son of an olympic helmsman, Steve could tune a boat like no one I ever met. I crewed for him in a Soling at CORK in 1970. We were fourth, beating Hans Fogh and other notables with an ancient boat and tired sails. Unfortunately he worked for Murphy & Nye, the Chicago sailmakers and they could not compete against Hoods in big boats (not even close). Jesse eventually realized the sails were an issue, switched to Hood and started a long (very long) winning streak. Stevie was unfortunately gone. We won back to back Macs (Port Huron and Chicago), only boat ever to do that. She was no doubt, the finest sailboat I ever skippered. Powerful, fast, always under control, and saved her time in almost all conditions (once we got that famous 'Starcut' reaching chute that blew everyone away in 1970. Heh, not much changes, eh.
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